Kushner was contacted about WikiLeaks, Russia before election

Senate Judiciary Committee members say President Trump's son-in-law and advisor Jared Kushner was contacted about Wikileaks prior in 2016.

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JTA, 17/11/17 12:19

Jared Kushner

Reuters

JTA - White House senior adviser Jared Kushner exchanged emails about WikiLeaks in the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election, members of the Senate Judiciary Committee said.

The assertion, which comes amid a criminal probe of alleged Russian intervention in the election that possibly involves the WikiLeaks website for whistleblowers, came Thursday in a letter sent by Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and ranking member Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) to Kushner’s lawyer.

In the letter, Grassley and Feinstein say Kushner received an email about WikiLeaks in September 2016 that he passed on to an official within President Trump’s campaign, in addition to communication about a “Russian backdoor overture and dinner invite,” The Hill reported.

The two senators demanded additional documents from Kushner, who is Jewish and is Trump’s son-in-law, as part of the committee’s ongoing investigation of Russia’s election interference.

WikiLeaks before the election published hacked emails from Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta and the Democratic National Committee.

There was also evidence of communications with Sergei Millian, a Belarusan American businessman who gave authorities information about alleged Russian intervention in American politics, copied to Kushner.

Reports about the senators’ letter did not include precise information about the content of the emails they are seeking.

Kushner, who said he would cooperate with authorities probing the affair and has divulged some information, did not provide the emails in question, the senators wrote. “You also have not produced any phone records that we presume exist and would relate to Mr. Kushner’s communications regarding several requests,” they added in the letter to Kushner’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell.

The letter says the documents provided to the Senate Judiciary Committee are “incomplete,” giving Lowell until Nov. 27 to comply with the request. “It appears that your search may have overlooked several documents,” the letter says.

Lowell said Thursday that Kushner and his legal representation have replied to all the requests they have received and will continue to cooperation with the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“We provided the Judiciary Committee with all relevant documents that had to do with Mr. Kushner’s calls, contacts or meetings with Russians during the campaign and transition, which was the request,” Lowell said in a statement.

The revelation that Kushner received communication about WikiLeaks prior to the November 2016 election comes several days after Donald Trump Jr,. the president’s son, confirmed his correspondence with WikiLeaks leading up to the election.